(September 16, 2010) – A final round of State Fiscal Stabilization Fund dollars from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) will allow the California State University to allocate $106 million to begin a limited admission of new students and partially restore course sections and student services for the upcoming winter and spring terms.

"We appreciate the efforts of the Governor, Lieutenant Governor and legislature in helping us secure this support," said CSU Chancellor Charles B. Reed. "Despite this influx of one-time funding, it is essential that the state will continue to uphold its commitment to higher education and restore state funding as currently outlined in the budget."

The funds are available due to a federal allocation that will be used to help CSU meet its payroll. In turn, CSU will use monies from state support and student fee revenues previously set aside for payroll to admit a limited number of new students and restore courses that were previously cut due to budget reductions. Across the system, CSU campuses will be able to admit as many as 10,000 new students. In addition, currently enrolled students will be able to take more classes and the CSU will restore as many as 3,000 course sections for the winter and spring terms. ARRA funding will also allow the CSU to partially restore student services (such as advisement, health and learning centers, etc.) and campus operations (such as library hours and maintenance) that were decreased due to previous budget cuts.

The CSU opened up the spring 2011 application cycle on August 1 and extended the cycle past the traditional August 31 deadline. As of September 13, the CSU had received approximately 41,000 applications for admission to the spring term. This final round of stimulus funding will allow the CSU to admit a portion of those students who applied, but the admission of the remainder of qualified new students is contingent upon the approval by the governor and legislature of a state budget that includes a restoration of state funding for the CSU.

The CSU has seen massive cuts in state support over the last two years and was forced to address the reduction in funding through the use of employee furloughs and workforce reductions, enrollment cuts and increased student fees. The governor's proposed budget includes the first restoration of state funding to the CSU since 2007 with $305 million to restore a one-time cut and an additional $60.6 million to fund further enrollment expansion.

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About the California State University
The California State University is the largest system of senior higher education in the country, with 23 campuses, approximately 433,000 students year round and 44,000 faculty and staff. Since the system was created in 1961, it has awarded nearly 2.5 million degrees, about 90,000 annually. The CSU is renowned for the quality of its teaching and for the job-ready graduates it produces. A recent economic report found that the CSU supports more than 150,000 jobs statewide, annually. The engine driving job creation is more than $17 billion in economic activity that directly results from CSU-related spending that generates $5.43 for every dollar the state invests. The mission of the CSU is to provide high-quality, affordable education to meet the ever-changing needs of the people of California. With its commitment to excellence, diversity and innovation, the CSU is the university system that is working for California.